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GeekyCon 2015: The Year LeakyCon Became GeekyCon and Nobody Noticed (Or Cared)

The Orlando North FYA Book Club recounts their recent GeekyCon adventures.

A couple of weeks ago, GeekyCon 2015 took place -- and the Orlando North FYA Book Club was there to take in all the fun! Here are Lisa and Rachel to tell us all about it (and make us MAJOR jealz).

While still remaining true to the spirit of Harry and his friends, LeakyCon has grown and transfigured into GeekyCon, expanding and embracing enthusiasms of all geek persuasions. At this con, it’s all about the fandom: Harry Potter, Glee, Disney, Supernatural, Doctor Who and -- apparently the star of this year’s show -- Welcome to Night Vale, among countless others. It’s about letting your geek flag fly proudly and loudly (I’m looking at YOU, Glee Sing Along) and basking in the warmth of like-minded folk in a safe space.

Naturally, being crazy, rabid YA lit fans, our attendance skewed toward LitTrack offerings (elegantly coordinated by authors Maureen Johnson and Leigh Bardugo) with a smattering of general programming to spice things up. Attendance at all of the panels, meetups and guest meet-and-greets that caught our fancy was impossible without the aid of Hermione’s timeturner, but we were thoroughly entertained by what we did see. We share with you a mini-travelogue of our adventures.

That Old Story

Megan Morrison, the YA “newbie” explaining how “authenticity is what readers respond to”

Focus: Are there no new stories but merely new ways of telling the same tale? Panelists discuss how cliches can be comforting and how modeling other voices helps you find your own.

Highlights: Stephanie Perkins tease the new anthology she’s editing, Summer Days and Summer Nights, set to drop in 2016! Ransom Riggs ensuring the audience that modeling your own voice after those you admire while trying to develop your own is “Normal. Not weird. Encouraged.” Holly Black shares an early experience finding her own voice--a story where vampires are captured by a dragon!

Focus: The adventures of writing scenes with high action or heavy smoochies. How do these authors deal with the “kicky and the squicky”?

Highlights: It’s official. Leigh Bardugo is a laugh riot. Her duties as moderator of this panel kept us, and the rest of the panelists, in stitches. Tahereh Mafi, so adept at writing violent scenes, actually hates writing them. They depress her. But her rowdy brothers help fight check her scenes. Jason Reynolds uses a mirror to visualize the punches before committing them to paper. His kissing scenes, on the other hand, are more of a struggle between what is real and what is “teenage boy fantasy.” Veronica Roth’s first instinct is to write her action scenes from a five-year-old boy’s perspective, also utilizing her own personal kickboxing training. Her love scenes are more of a process of checking off items on the “kissing scene” list, and she puts those off until last. All the panelists agree that Instalove, Instadeath and Instableed are NOT good things.

Focus: Discussion of what it takes to realize a story by only using your voice.

Highlights: Adorable Maxwell Glick has a dead-on Yoda voice and has recorded over 70 audio books--many from his tiny closet! Mary Kate Wiles is all about voice-over enthusiasm: “I will do a game. I’ll do anything!” The Welcome to Night Vale crew had more than a few audience members swooning and seat bouncing when a few of the character voices were brought out. Advice to those interested in breaking into voice work--visit voices.com or voices123.com.

Phenomenal Social Powers...Itty Bitty Content Space

Focus: Panelists talk about building an online audience via platforms like tumblr, Vine and YouTube.

Highlights: Thomas Sanders discusses the pressures to be funny in his Vines as well as the responsibility he feels to be a positive influence. Amanda Brennan waxes on the power of Tumblr, how posts of a candle smelling like Chris Evans led to retail stores marketing a “Boyfriend Candle!” She also stresses that tags are important to getting your content seen. Peter Hollens loves YouTube because it gives content creators the ability to bypass traditional gatekeepers and go straight to the consumer, thus creating a culture around things we like rather than geography.

Lydia Bennet Book Review

Focus: Panelists provide an exclusive preview of The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet: A Novel

Highlights: Episodes were written for Lydia’s story that weren’t filmed and those plot points were redirected to the book, which starts off shortly after the last book. Mary Kate provided a reading, which was lovely. If you’re bummed that you missed it, you’ll be able to hear her read the whole thing - cuz she’s narrating the audiobook.

Fun Facts From My Notes: Maxwell Glick asked a question in character (as Mr. Collins), which eventually lead to Mary Kate revealing her audiobook voice for Mr. Collins.

YA Jeopardy

Hardest question in Round 1; nobody knew the book whose opening line is.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” Do you know it?

Focus: A raucous all-YA edition of the classic game show! Three authors compete in the first game; three more in the second. The winners of the two games go head to head for Final Jeopardy.

Highlights: Nobody on the first game’s panel knew the opening line “There’s 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it” belonged to Phineas and Ferb and had to shield themselves from the audience’s incredulity. All is forgiven, however, when the crowd raps along with Veronica Roth to the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Jenny Han wins the first game. There’s quite a bit of smack talk between Jenny and Leigh Bardugo before the second game begins. This just in: Adam Silvera has never seen Back to the Future! Final Jeopardy is down to Jenny Han vs. Leigh Bardugo (victor of game 2). The answer: In this tile-based game, you trade resources such as bricks, sheep, wood and wheat. Leigh risked all her money on an incorrect question. Jenny Han wins the day with “What is Settlers of Catan?”!

Fun Facts From My Notes: Ransom Riggs is an anglophile and there was much smack talk between Robin Wasserman and Leigh Bardugo...about mustaches.

My Selfie, Myself

Focus: Panelists discuss their online lives--the fun parts and the stressful bits. They also share their early online selves (before anyone really knew who they were) and the difference between online presence and the real-life person behind it.

Highlights: Jenny Han’s online past includes devotion to General Hospital fandom; Marie Lu was more of a Days of Our Lives girl. Tahereh Mafi was the “tough kid on the internet.” Courtney Summers’s publisher insisted she get a MySpace when she first started out. It’s a pity it’s not still there. Most of the panelists have both a private and public online presence, which they feel is the smartest choice.

Teenage Dreams & Fandom Schemes

Focus: The authors discuss the things they love, guilty pleasures, and Uncle Jesse

Highlights: This session was hilarious and full of potentially embarrassing anecdotes. Cynthia has seen Star Wars 382 times in the theater and that’s just Episode IV. She saw Episode V over 200 times. Sabaa devoured the first three books of Harry Potter in one day while in college. Jason originally said his major fandoming was for Michael Jackson, and he even had the glove and red leather jacket, but we soon discovered his real love was for Uncle Jesse. He informed us that Uncle Jesse “was the coolest person in the world” and “it was Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and John Stamos” AND “he influenced my LIFE.” Leigh has a major love for Stevie Nicks because “witches, beauty, sparkles!” and she has put Stevie references into her books. Cynthia loved Princess Leia because she “owned her awesome” and she was a princess who saved herself.

When Worlds Collide: Comparing the Universes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural

Highlights: The discussion was unfortunately adjacent to the room where the Glee Sing Along was taking place. The noise temporarily stymied the Corless sisters, but they quickly got back on track comparing Willow and Charlie, a shared notion of self sacrifice and differences in the two universes’ monsters (Buffy’s are more lumpy and campy, Supernatural’s more anthropoid and scary.

How2Disney

Focus: Panel shares their lifelong love of all things Disney and how they channeled that love into the online content creation.

Highlights: This session was packed standing room only with a multitude of Disneiacs, many cosplaying their Mouse House love to the hilt. The crowd decided Elsa was a Slytherin. Most thought Anna a Hufflepuff. Lots of love for Disney Channel live action TV shows, to the point of a swelling chorus of "Best of Both Worlds". Jon Cozart is working on Hercules and a prince version of "After Ever After"! What Disney character would they be? Thomas Sanders identifies with Goofy (and has the laugh to go with it!), Maxwell Glick is Mickey, and Jon Cozart would be Pegasus.

Focus: Teams of YA authors compete against each other in the classic game.

Highlights: Maureen Johnson actually polled 100 people for each round’s question! That’s top notch game making right there. Team Bardugo, naturally, was from Spain. Team Han was a single mother with very tiny children. Her daughters Amelia (Lu) and Bedelia (Mafi) were only three years old. Maureen tried to gain sympathy from the crowd for Team Han’s loss to the Bardugo Family (Tiny children! Single mom! Have you no heart, people?!). The audience apparently left their hearts in the Marketplace and the Bardugo Family claimed their victory.

Questions (and Their Best Answers):

Signs a writer is on a deadline
Best Answer: “Failure to shower.”
SURVEY SAYS: on the board!

Best place to hide a dead body in Disney World
Best Answer: “Inside of Mickey.”
SURVEY SAYS: on the board! (No really, “inside a costume” was allowed for this answer.)

Something you bring home from a con
Best Answer: “Illness.”
SURVEY SAYS: on the board!

Signs you are about to die in any kind of story
Best Answer: Frankly, all of them, but “You’re in a John Green book” got a lot of ooohhhs from the audience.
SURVEY SAYS: not on the board!

Something you find on a writer’s computer
Best Answer: “Food stains.”
SURVEY SAYS: on the board!

Thanks for stopping by, Lisa and Rachel! You can find the Orlando North FYA Book Club on Goodreads, or just show up at their next meeting! And follow their #YASummerShowdown progress on the #FYAON Tumblr!